The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.

click above image for boxscore

THE GOOD: Reid Brignac. His 2-run home run in the 5th game the Rays the lead, and then he led off the 10th with a double. Jason Bartlett pinch-ran and would eventually score the winning run on a 2-out throwing error.

THE BAD: Postgame Concerts: If there is a downside to the postgame concerts it is that some of these shows will attract non-sports fans. And when that happens, the Rays will get a late-arriving crowd in which 5-10K people won’t start filtering into The Trop until the 7th inning and have no interest whatsoever in the game…Steinbrenner Monument. Tomorrow’s game time has been pushed back to 7:35 due to a pre-game ceremony unveiling George Steinbrenner’s plaque in Monument Park at Replica Yankee Stadium. Anybody think it is a coincidence that the Yankees waited until they were playing the Rays?

THE TELLING: Scott Kazmir will start today for the Angels. This will be his first start at Tropicana Field as an opposing player…Mike Ekstrom was recalled from Durham following last night’s game…According to CoolStandings.com the Rays have a 99.9% chance at making the playoffs.

WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 89-58 one-half game behind the Yankees (tied in the loss column and the Rays hold the tie-breaker) and 7.5 games ahead of the Red Sox in the Wild Card (8 in the loss column). After 147 games in 2008, the Rays were 88-59.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

The Durham Bulls season ended on Friday night when they lost game 4 of the Governor’s Cup Finals. [Indy week]

It sure looks like winning the division is much more important to the Rays than it is to the Yankees. [Tampa Tribune]

Justin Bieber does seem much more appropriate for “DJ Kitty.” [TAUNTR]

Rob Bradford of WEEI makes a case for the Red Sox signing Carl Crawford this offseason. One interesting quote from Crawford in the piece: “I feel like if I didn’t have to run as much my offense would be better.” [WEEI]

This week, members of the Tampa Chamber of Commerce will visit Phoenix to study their light-rail system which could be used as a model for Tampa’s. [Tampa Tribune]

DOWN ON THE FARM…

Columbus 13, DURHAM 2 (Columbus wins series 3-1): The Bulls were in a hole early as Paul Phillips gave up 4 runs in the first 2 innings. A Chris Richard RBI-single in the 3rd and another by JJ Furmaniak in the 4th made the score 5-2. But Darin Downs and Mike Ekstrom combined to give up 6 runs in the next two innings and the game was over.

6 Comments

Why are late arrivers more intent on seeing the concert "the bad?" As long as they bought the tickets at full value they are still doing their share to help re-sign free agents next year. If they don't bother to occupy their seats, who cares? More room for those who want to watch baseball to stretch out.
And on the other hand, shouldn't Dan Wheeler be back in "the bad?" Two walks and letting someone else clean up his mess?

But I'm not sure those extra tickets are helping the Rays' bottom-line. At least not on a night like last night. The Rays do have to pay the artists to do these shows. And I think where the Rays hope to make money is from the people that "discover" the Rays because of the concerts and become repeat customers. I just don't see that happening with the Adam Lambert crowd.

the adam lambert fans were primarily 10-13 year old girls who wont be coming back. i also couldnt believe that adam lambert, who i had never heard of, had an opening act (who was terrible btw), when zztop and hall & oates did not.

I'd have to semi agree with Cork on this one. While there is potential for them to gain revenue off of the concerts, they should probably select an artist who has the demographic of fans more likely to see going to a game as a bonus to the concert - not just the opening act that you don't mind missing while drinking in the parking lot. And, aren't we at the point now where Wheeler is unspokenly always on the Bad list?

I see your point but let me just say that I was once a 10 year old girl who got taken to a baseball game and became a fan for life.

Also, part of the issue for the Rays is just getting the attendance numbers up to stop the constant "where are the fans?" whining in the national press. When ESPN notes that Cleveland drew more fans on a particular night than Tampa Bay did, they aren't checking whether it was actually "Elvis Impersonator night" or whatever -- they just see the numbers. As far as any needs to know, 32,000 people showed up Sat. night to see the Rays. End of story.